Demo Discs

[SilkSkull]

I'm thinking of making a section on my website in the style of/about demo discs and it has me thinking about them. This site is a good resource for PS1 demo discs. I'd love to see any others people can find!

I've always found demo discs interesting, it's like the vibe of a gaming magazine but playable. I have never had any physical ones (hoping to change that soon with the power of ebay) but I've played a lot of dumped versions online and I love them! The menus always interested me too, they remind me of dvd menus (another thing I love)

Two more quick things before I stop rambling, Itch.io has a great selection of games meant to emulate ps1 demo discs (usually in a horror style) and my favorite youtuber NakeyJakey has a great video about the Pizza Hut demo discs!

Anyway what do you all think? Did you ever have any? Do you know somewhere to buy them? I'd love to see them if you have any!!!

[dotmidi]

YOOO   
I just told @Melooon and @Commodorn about this on the minecraft server a few days before this! (Definitely read/watch what this says btw you two , I love nakeyjakey.)
I really miss physical media so it made these kinds of things possible.. nothing sounds better than a greasy demo disc that lets me play some spyro on the playstation

[Inkerlink]

Oh yeah, I've had a handful of demo discs over the years. Some from magazines, some came with the consoles themselves and some that just happened to come into my possession for one reason or another.
I think the only one I still have on hand is the Generator Vol.2 demo disc for Dreamcast that came with my console when I purchased it.

For a while, other than Sonic Adventure, this was the only thing I played on my Dreamcast. I hadn't discovered that my Dreamcast was capable of playing burnt games yet and I was too young to afford any more games for it since buying the console itself ate up everything I had saved up.

This disc came with the following games:

• Sonic Adventure - Emerald Coast demo. I had the full game already so didn't play this one much.
• Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation - I don't remember much about this one. I enjoyed Tomb Raider on the PS1 but it's never really been one of my favourite series.
• Fur Fighters - This one was a lot of fun, it was a third person shooter starring stuffed animals. It was quite difficult but I remember the controls being somewhat decent for a Dreamcast game.
• Railroad Tycoon 2 - I fondly remember the music in this one. The game was great but the DC controls were terrible, at least compared to the PC version. I own it on PC with GOG now which is a much better experience.
• MDK 2 - Probably my most played game from this disc. I loved MDK1 on the PSX, and although MDK2 is quite different stylistically (this was developed by Ubisoft instead of Shiny I think) it was still a really fun game. You got to play a level as all three characters. Me and my best friend at the time always loved the Doctor level, where you got a toaster gun and could plaster the walls with toast.
• Tony Hawks Pro Skater - Like Tomb Raider I didn't play this too much. Didn't really get into the Tony Hawks series too much until Tony Hawks Underground game out.
• Rayman 2 - This was another one I played a lot of. I originally played the game on N64 so seeing the upgraded graphics and framerate of the DC version was great.
• Dead or Alive 2 - At the time this was probably the best looking video game I had ever seen in my life. I got a lot of playtime out of this demo since it was very replayable, you could play as a couple of characters and go through their arcade story. Not sure if it was in full or not but it was a decently long demo none the less.

Other than that, I recall having a small number of PSX demo discs that I had gotten from magazines as gifts, and possibly some from ceral boxes as well? I just remember demo discs being a great way to try new games before getting them. And especially with that Generator disc, a lot of those games I would go on to enjoy the full versions eventually.

[SilkSkull]

YOOO   
I just told @Melooon and @Commodorn about this on the minecraft server a few days before this! (Definitely read/watch what this says btw you two , I love nakeyjakey.)
I really miss physical media so it made these kinds of things possible.. nothing sounds better than a greasy demo disc that lets me play some spyro on the playstation

Awesome! I love a good slice of stuffed crust and some Tony Hawk myself.

Oh yeah, I've had a handful of demo discs over the years. Some from magazines, some came with the consoles themselves and some that just happened to come into my possession for one reason or another.
I think the only one I still have on hand is the Generator Vol.2 demo disc for Dreamcast that came with my console when I purchased it.

For a while, other than Sonic Adventure, this was the only thing I played on my Dreamcast. I hadn't discovered that my Dreamcast was capable of playing burnt games yet and I was too young to afford any more games for it since buying the console itself ate up everything I had saved up.

This disc came with the following games:

• Sonic Adventure - Emerald Coast demo. I had the full game already so didn't play this one much.
• Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation - I don't remember much about this one. I enjoyed Tomb Raider on the PS1 but it's never really been one of my favourite series.
• Fur Fighters - This one was a lot of fun, it was a third person shooter starring stuffed animals. It was quite difficult but I remember the controls being somewhat decent for a Dreamcast game.
• Railroad Tycoon 2 - I fondly remember the music in this one. The game was great but the DC controls were terrible, at least compared to the PC version. I own it on PC with GOG now which is a much better experience.
• MDK 2 - Probably my most played game from this disc. I loved MDK1 on the PSX, and although MDK2 is quite different stylistically (this was developed by Ubisoft instead of Shiny I think) it was still a really fun game. You got to play a level as all three characters. Me and my best friend at the time always loved the Doctor level, where you got a toaster gun and could plaster the walls with toast.
• Tony Hawks Pro Skater - Like Tomb Raider I didn't play this too much. Didn't really get into the Tony Hawks series too much until Tony Hawks Underground game out.
• Rayman 2 - This was another one I played a lot of. I originally played the game on N64 so seeing the upgraded graphics and framerate of the DC version was great.
• Dead or Alive 2 - At the time this was probably the best looking video game I had ever seen in my life. I got a lot of playtime out of this demo since it was very replayable, you could play as a couple of characters and go through their arcade story. Not sure if it was in full or not but it was a decently long demo none the less.

Other than that, I recall having a small number of PSX demo discs that I had gotten from magazines as gifts, and possibly some from ceral boxes as well? I just remember demo discs being a great way to try new games before getting them. And especially with that Generator disc, a lot of those games I would go on to enjoy the full versions eventually.

YOOO   
I just told @Melooon and @Commodorn about this on the minecraft server a few days before this! (Definitely read/watch what this says btw you two , I love nakeyjakey.)
I really miss physical media so it made these kinds of things possible.. nothing sounds better than a greasy demo disc that lets me play some spyro on the playstation

This is awesome! I wonder if magazines had their own or if they were all distributed from the same company? That seems like an awesome collection of games!!! Also for what little experience I had with the dreamcast I remember the games being waaaaay more expensive than other games (maybe just a canada thing?) Thanks for the showcase!

[Inkerlink]

I wonder if magazines had their own or if they were all distributed from the same company?

Yeah it's very likely they were. The Generator discs were always bundled with the Dreamcast console and was updated every now and then with newer bundles. It's kind of like how Nintendo bundled Wii Sports with new consoles, except Wii Sports is a full game lol.
You're probably right about the pricing, games were generally always more expensive here in Canada than the US. At the time I think games were retailling for 49 whereas in the US they were probably 39? I could be wrong. But even so, it was so dang easy to burn games for Dreamcast that even as a kid I had a spindle of games for it and didn't have to spend a penny, perfect for my empty child wallet lol. But yeah, it was nice to have something else to sink your teeth into besides Sonic Adventure at no extra cost.

[Cobra!]

I absolutely love demo discs! I remember seeing them as exclusive sneak peaks of a game that hasn't come out yet.

They're also permanently in a development phase. Any bugs that exist in this demos, but not the full game, will stay there as long as the disc holds the data. It's always interesting seeing any differences between the demo of a game and the full game.

Over here, McDonald's were the ones distributing PS1 demo discs, and because naturally I already enjoyed McDonald's, it made it all that much sweeter!

I think one of my biggest honours as a game developer is getting a demo of Operation: Pinkeye on a demo disc. It came on the 2nd demo disc released by E1M1 magazine. I had to rush the demo for their deadline, and as a result, is very, very rough! (The middle mouse button actually crashed the game!) It's something to laugh about now, though!

It's also interesting when you get a console that comes with some games and demo discs, and seeing those demo discs have games that I got with the system. You can kind of piece together how the previous owner discovered and decided to buy said games! I've even bought games after playing the demos on those same discs. Jet Set Radio on Dreamcast is an example! Clockwork Knight on Saturn, too!

it was so dang easy to burn games for Dreamcast that even as a kid I had a spindle of games for it and didn't have to spend a penny, perfect for my empty child wallet lol. But yeah, it was nice to have something else to sink your teeth into besides Sonic Adventure at no extra cost.

Yeah, and I think that ultimately led to the system's downfall. Nobody was going to develop for a system that can be easily pirated. It was patched with later consoles, but it was too little too late.

However, it's a godsend for homebrew today! People can make new games, and even new demo discs for the system today and just release them! I got a demo disc full of homebrew demos not too long ago, actually!

One thing I find funny was that the PS2 ended up having the exact same exploit (or close enough) as the Dreamcast! Piracy happened on DC because of a Mil-CD exploit, on PS2, it's an exploit with DVD video. :p (Only thing was it was only discovered last year iirc!)

[SilkSkull]

Yeah it's very likely they were. The Generator discs were always bundled with the Dreamcast console and was updated every now and then with newer bundles. It's kind of like how Nintendo bundled Wii Sports with new consoles, except Wii Sports is a full game lol.
You're probably right about the pricing, games were generally always more expensive here in Canada than the US. At the time I think games were retailling for 49 whereas in the US they were probably 39? I could be wrong. But even so, it was so dang easy to burn games for Dreamcast that even as a kid I had a spindle of games for it and didn't have to spend a penny, perfect for my empty child wallet lol. But yeah, it was nice to have something else to sink your teeth into besides Sonic Adventure at no extra cost.

I remember first learning about wii homebrew and how easy it was to mod your wii, I never looked back. I can't believe I never pirated for the dreamcast  Is is still easy today? For research reasons of course

[Inkerlink]

Is is still easy today?

Yeah! As long as you have a Dreamcast model that supports playing burnt discs, it's pretty easy.
The Dreamcast used GD-ROMs for it's games which were larger then CD-R's, but there are ways to cram the games into CD-R's and have the Dreamcast read it. One thing to note is I think the Dreamcast has to work harder to read CD-R's so be aware of extra wear and tear on the system from it.
I'm not sure what the stance on piracy is on this forum so I won't go into specifics, but there is plenty of info out there if you want to look into it more.

[CyberCat2000]

MDK 2 - Probably my most played game from this disc. I loved MDK1 on the PSX, and although MDK2 is quite different stylistically (this was developed by Ubisoft instead of Shiny I think) it was still a really fun game. You got to play a level as all three characters. Me and my best friend at the time always loved the Doctor level, where you got a toaster gun and could plaster the walls with toast.

It was BioWare that did MDK2, actually! (Kind of surprising considering they're usually know for RPGs like Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age...)

I wonder if shareware compilation CDs count as demo disks too? Much like those demo disks, they were packed with a lot of limited versions of games. I discovered a lot of DOS and Windows 95 shareware titles, actually! Some are well known (i.e. Raptor: Call of the Shadows), others lesser known (Interpose, anyone?). Either way, I had quite a lot of fun with them!

Besides this, I remember my GameCube coming with a Legend of Zelda compilation disk containing the NES and N64 titles, as well as a demo of The Wind Waker that I found myself playing quite a bit...

[SilkSkull]

It was BioWare that did MDK2, actually! (Kind of surprising considering they're usually know for RPGs like Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age...)

I wonder if shareware compilation CDs count as demo disks too? Much like those demo disks, they were packed with a lot of limited versions of games. I discovered a lot of DOS and Windows 95 shareware titles, actually! Some are well known (i.e. Raptor: Call of the Shadows), others lesser known (Interpose, anyone?). Either way, I had quite a lot of fun with them!

Besides this, I remember my GameCube coming with a Legend of Zelda compilation disk containing the NES and N64 titles, as well as a demo of The Wind Waker that I found myself playing quite a bit...

Those too! Shareware discs are another thing I'd love to collect if I could find any. I'm currently calling local retro gaming stores in search 

[Inkerlink]

It was BioWare that did MDK2

Yeah that's right, my mistake. Not sure why I thought Ubisoft.
But yeah, I'd definitely count shareware as demos. Shareware is basically a synonym for a demo anyway.
The most famous shareware I can think of is Wolfenstein 3D Episode 1, which nowadays you can play within your browser!

[Cobra!]

Yeah! As long as you have a Dreamcast model that supports playing burnt discs, it's pretty easy.
The Dreamcast used GD-ROMs for it's games which were larger then CD-R's, but there are ways to cram the games into CD-R's and have the Dreamcast read it. One thing to note is I think the Dreamcast has to work harder to read CD-R's so be aware of extra wear and tear on the system from it.
I'm not sure what the stance on piracy is on this forum so I won't go into specifics, but there is plenty of info out there if you want to look into it more.

I heard that, too. You can help alleviate this by using higher quality CD-Rs (People always point to Verbatm’s “Music CDs” whenever I ask), and making sure the ISO being burned takes up as much space on the CD as possible.

Those too! Shareware discs are another thing I'd love to collect if I could find any. I'm currently calling local retro gaming stores in search 

I actually got a shareware CD last year from some random shop I found on a street near my old home. It had stuff like VHS tapes, floppy disks and cassette tapes!



The CD had 50+ sharewares and even some bootlegs, some of which had never been archived, so an archivist friend helped to preserve them.